When working with routines, especially if you are self employed or work from home, it is really important to have clear boundaries between work and personal activities.

It is very easy to just nip out to do a personal errand which disrupts the discipline necessary for work flow. Become aware of the things you find yourself doing that you use as a distraction – notice why you want to be distracted.

Create awareness of what your habits and patterns are by using a diary to record everything you do and review it at the end of each day. Did you use your time in a productive way? Did your day have the flow that you wanted to experience?

If not, challenge yourself to set clear boundaries around when you are available for business activities and when you will attend to personal or family activities and continue to monitor the result to see how this small change could work for you.

TIP:

I use a printout from my on-line calendar for a typical week to help get the clarity I need to make this work for me. This template includes all my regular, time sensitive appointments and the blocks of time around these that will be dedicated to business, personal time and family. When I first started to use this template I had to reschedule some appointments so they fit better with my intention to have clear boundaries between work and personal time.

It’s all about become really aware of your patterns, holding the intention of what you want to create and making small changes each day to bring it all into alignment.